In the past, it has been found desirable to use a laser to weld components together in the construction of a head suspension assembly for a computer disk drive. Such components include, but are not limited to load beams and actuator arms. This has not presented a problem when both components are made of the same or similar material, such as stainless steel, for which an ND: YAG type laser has been found suitable. However, when one component (such as the actuator arm) is made of a material (such as aluminum) that is not readily weldable to another component of a different material to which it must be attached (such as a stainless steel load beam) other means of attachment have been indicated. One reason for using dissimilar materials is to increase the ratio of stiffness to mass in one of the parts, for example, the actuator arm. However, moving away from existing laser welding technology increases the investment needed in manufacturing equipment as to cost, space and process flow, compared to present day manufacturing. The present invention overcomes this difficulty and, in one aspect, allows the use of existing laser welding technology by providing weldable inserts in one (or both) components when formed of material that is not easily weldable, thereby allowing such conventional welding to be used to secure parts or components such as the load beam and actuator arm together. As used herein, the phrase “unsuitable for welding” and the like refers to incompatibility of materials for purposes of joining together using a conventional laser welding technique. For example, joining aluminum to aluminum by specialized welding is known, but joining aluminum to steel is not readily accomplished using conventional welding techniques, and such a proposed metallurgical combination is to be understood as being “unsuitable for welding.” Even though there are known techniques for joining dissimilar metals, such as ultrasonic energy welding and even explosive welding, such exotic techniques are not cost effective for the joining of components of head suspension assemblies. As such, the present invention responds to the need for a technique to enable laser welding to join dissimilar metals, to join a metallic component to a non-metallic component, and even to join non metallic components together for head suspension assemblies.